Word
Ucuz ve sahte bir hediye almaktansa hiçbir şey almamak daha iyi.
Meaning
Rather than buying a cheap and fake gift, buying nothing is better.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Ucuz ve sahte bir hediye almaktansa hiçbir şey almamak daha iyi.
bir
a / an
iyi
good
ucuz
cheap
ve
and
Questions & Answers about Ucuz ve sahte bir hediye almaktansa hiçbir şey almamak daha iyi.
How exactly does almaktansa break down to mean "rather than buying"?
It is made of the infinitive verb almak (to buy) + the ablative suffix -tan (from) + the conditional suffix -sa (if). While literally it looks like "if from buying," this specific combination (-mAktAnsa) is the standard way to express "rather than doing [action]" in Turkish.
Why is the second verb almamak in its dictionary form?
The sentence compares two general ideas: "buying" and "not buying". Because they are general concepts rather than actions being done by a specific person at a specific time, they stay in the infinitive -mAk form. The preferred action here is negative, so we use the negative infinitive almamak.
Why is hiçbir şey written with exactly that spacing, instead of as one or three words?
In Turkish, hiçbir (any/none) is an exception that is always written as a single word. However, the word şey (thing) is always written as a separate word, no matter what word comes before it (just like her şey or bir şey).
Why isn't there a verb like "is" at the very end of the sentence?
There is a hidden "to be" verb! The phrase daha iyi here means "is better." In Turkish, the third-person "is" suffix (-dir) is often dropped in everyday statements. Writing daha iyidir would also be grammatically correct, but leaving it off is very natural and common.